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Topic: Do you have an electric kettle? (Read 97187 times)

I am in Australia and here an electric kettle is an essential part of a kitchen, mainly used to boil water for tea or instant coffee, but also useful for boiling water for other purposes.

I was speaking to a friend from the U.S. and somehow the subject of my kettle came up. She does not have one and does not see why such a thing would be useful let alone essential. She does not drink tea and her coffee is made in a coffee maker; if she has to boil water she uses a pot or the microwave.

I cannot imagine a kitchen without a kettle and I was wondering how many people get along perfectly happily without one.

My BF has an electric kettle with different settings for different types of tea. His biggest problem is the fact that his kitchen barely has any outlets. The only place to put it is the stovetop anyway.

I don't have a kettle at all. Or a microwave. If I want tea I have to boil water on the stovetop, which is annoying. My sister and mom each have a kettle to heat water, but it goes on the stove. I'm jealous. I have boxes and cannisters of tea that I can't make very well because pouring boiling water from an open pot to a mug isn't exactly easy.

The only other thing I would use it for is if I needed to steam an envelope open. It's easier with a direct line of steam rather than a big plume, but for general water boiling purposes, it's usually being used to cook something that's just going to be added to the pot.

US here. I have an electric kettle. Love it to pieces-I use it for hot beverages, heating water for cooking or canning when I need to add hot water to something that is already going, and for making instant soup in a cup.

However, I did spend a lot of years without one. If I needed hot water, I either boiled it on the stovetop or in the microwave. I then got a stovetop kettle, and used it some. But for a single cup, the microwave was often still the easiest bet.

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Lynn

"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat." Robert A. Heinlein

I have always had an electric kettle - an absolutely essential piece of kitchen equipment. I'm a tea drinker and don't drink coffee at all so it gets used every morning I have breakfast at home. We have one in the kitchen at work, too.

I also use it when a recipe calls for hot water. That way, I can use fresh run cold water rather than water that's been sitting in my hot water tank, gathering metals and plastisizers and who knows what else, in something I'm going to consume.

cwm, I had to use a pot when staying at a friend's place. The trick? Put your mug in the sink and then pour. That way, it doesn't matter if you spill a little.

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After cleaning out my Dad's house, I have this advice: If you haven't used it in a year, throw it out!!!!.

U.S. here. I have one, but I originally bought it for canning, where I needed boiling water for lids and the like, but the stove top is already crowded. Most people I know use the microwave or stove top. If they use a lot of boiling water, they have a stove-top kettle with a whistle.

I also have a hot water dispenser in the sink. It doesn't reach boiling temperature, though, and is mostly used for getting a start on boiling water for pasta, or for washing a few dishes. It takes about a gallon of cold water to go through the pipes before the hot water reaches the kitchen sink.

I have never even seen an electric kettle (not in stores, not at the homes of friends or relatives) in real life. The only place I've ever seen or heard or heard of them on from British TV shows. I just can't imagine anyone boiling so much water to be poured that one would need a device that only does that. In every home I know they simply use a pot on the stove for boiling or if there is a lot of tea drinking in the home maybe a stovetop kettle.

UK. I could not live without my kettle - there's a long standing joke in the UK that whenever you move, the first thing you need to find and unpack at the other end is the kettle, so make sure you pack it somewhere prominent - and I'm completely baffled that other people don't have them

US, northeast. We have an electric kettle and I LOVE it. I can't imagine going back to not having one. (Previously we used a stovetop kettle.) Being able to boil water so quickly and efficiently is fantastic.

I have never even seen an electric kettle (not in stores, not at the homes of friends or relatives) in real life. The only place I've ever seen or heard or heard of them on from British TV shows. I just can't imagine anyone boiling so much water to be poured that one would need a device that only does that. In every home I know they simply use a pot on the stove for boiling or if there is a lot of tea drinking in the home maybe a stovetop kettle.

I ordered my eletric kettle from Amazon simply because I wasn't sure where to look for one. As it turned out, Target carries one or two electric kettles.

UK. I could not live without my kettle - there's a long standing joke in the UK that whenever you move, the first thing you need to find and unpack at the other end is the kettle, so make sure you pack it somewhere prominent - and I'm completely baffled that other people don't have them

Not a joke - I'm serious about that! Whenever I've moved, I've always had a small biz with kettle and tea things in a prominent place.